What do you do when your prescription is either filled or written incorrectly? Sorry if this may sound a bit odd at all. Here's what happened, and I'd like anybody input on what my actions should be after this is all sorted out.
It started on July 30th, I called my pain management doctors office to have my MS Contin refilled. It was around 3 o'clock and it went straight to a voice mail message of if your calling to leave a message of this hit such and such or if it is for this hit this number. So I listened to the instructions hit the correct number and left a message for the refill accordingly. I went through the weekend had a doctor's appointment with my GP on Monday and never heard anything from the pain management doctor's office. On Tuesday afternoon I called the pain management office to see about the my prescription for the refill. Evidently they did not receive or lost my voice mail. So they had no idea about the my refill request. So the nurse rushed one through for me to be ready the next morning. Wednesday I drive down to their office pick up the prescription, drive back out to the boon docks where I live get to the pharmacy and turn it in to be filled. When picking up the prescription I'm told it is considered an early refill and the doctors office has to approve it by phone call (during the waiting time the pharmacy never called me like they should to inform me of this). The only reason it was early was my pain doctor changed the prescription at an appointment and increased the amount taken per day by 1 extra pill a day. I call the nurse at the pain doctors to have her call the pharmacy asap because at this point I had run out yesterday. She call the pharmacist, who filled the prescription, and stated oh they did change the prescription a lot. She put the prescription in the bag I paid and left. I got home took my dose and just noted it was a different color than the last few times. The last few days the TN kept flaring up. I kept trying to do anything to lessen the pain. Sleeping became a horrid chore to just get to sleep more than usual.
Today the pain just kept building like building block. I got up took a pill and three hours later BAM TN hell. Then I'd wait till my next dose and hope it would settle down again. Finally this evening I notice the pills just melted in my mouth. That is when I looked at the prescription bottle. The name was different, instead of Morphine Sulfate CR it just read Morphine Sulfate. I looked more closely at the pills because this did not seem right. There was no coding on them. Using a pill identifying on WEB MD nothing indicated extended released. I called my pharmacy but they were already closed for the day. So I called Walgreen's and talked with the pharmacist there to confirm what type of release the pills were. The pharmacist on phone confirm the description of the pills and labeling were for immediate release. At this point I'm having a horrid time with battling the pain. I called the pain doctor and left him a message to call me. Thankfully 90 minutes later he did. I described the medication, labeling, and how little pain relief I was getting at the moment. He agreed it sounded like somewhere the prescription was done wrong either written or filled. Also he was kind enough to change the dosing until I can I have another emergency visit early this next week to figure out what happened.
Now once I find out what happened, what should I do? If the pharmacy filled it wrong should I report this some where (this would be the second time this happened in a nine month period)? If it was the pain management doctor's office who made a mistake what should I do then? I am pretty upset with this, and I think rightfully so. Although I'd like to slap everyone who was involved in messing up, I need to act in a manner that is respectful. So what do you do and what steps do you take when your opiate or for that matter any other medication gets done or prescribed incorrectly?
Thank you to anyone who has read this whole thing, sorry it's so long.